The South will never be the same again

[Blackbird]

Sure - we spent nearly a complete day at Vicksburg National Memorial Park. Reminded me of the fields of Verdun and the WWI slaughter there. It hadn't crossed my mind until then that the Civil War was the US' incisive first experience that old tactics and beginning modern weaponry equated in senselessly high casualties. And Grant might have not been the most naturally gifted tactician in the Civil War, but he sure was dogged and repeated failure seemed to breed thinking out of the box moments with him. That in turn reminded me a bit of how the Red Army eventually won its victories against the only initially superior Wehrmacht in WWII.

We saw a couple of smaller and larger Civil War cemeteries along the way too.

And to balance things: The very compelling Civil Rights Museum in Montgomery - the Martin Luther King National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis was unfortunately closed when we were there on Easter Sunday - so we just saw the fateful motel (where it is is located in) and its balcony where he was shot.

Plus: The new WWII Museum in Nashville (nicely done and still developing, but it needs to make much clearer how much the Red Army played a role in beating down Nazi Germany, it is very light on that; also one howler in claiming one military cap with a deathshead skull found in the North African theatre to be a "Waffen-SS cap" - it wasn't, both Wehrmacht tank soldiers and snipers had the skull insignia too, no Waffen-SS soldier ever saw Africa, maybe I'll write to them about that) and of course the Johnny Cash Museum there (very lovingly done). Plus Graceland in Memphis which I had expected to be much, much larger!!! By today's living home standards that is an upper middle class building (in a less than classy or glossy neighborhood) sizewise, nothing more.

I'd like to see Vicksburg....I hit 7 or 8 sites last year from Gettysburg (x3) down to fredricksburg.  It's taken over all my interests except bass.

[westen44]

I've been to several--mostly because my work took me to the location.  Chickamauga and Vicksburg stand out as being among the most interesting.  I was working near both places for quite a while.  So I went anytime I wanted to.  I've also been to Shiloh, Murfreesboro, & even to the Brice's Crossroads site. 

[Blackbird]

I've been to several--mostly because my work took me to the location.  Chickamauga and Vicksburg stand out as being among the most interesting.  I was working near both places for quite a while.  So I went anytime I wanted to.  I've also been to Shiloh, Murfreesboro, & even to the Brice's Crossroads site.

I'm a total addict..fascinating stuff.  The more you read about it, the deeper you get and the more you read..

[westen44]

I'm a total addict..fascinating stuff.  The more you read about it, the deeper you get and the more you read..

I agree that it can have that effect.  Much of the drama involved goes far beyond what a fiction writer could ever begin to imagine. 

[Dave W]

I hope those oversize food servings included plenty of grits. Everyone needs grits.

The Vicksburg National Park is probably the most sobering place I've ever visited.

[westen44]

I hope those oversize food servings included plenty of grits. Everyone needs grits.

The Vicksburg National Park is probably the most sobering place I've ever visited.

I agree that grits are very good. 

I also felt Vicksburg was the most sobering place I'd ever been to. 

[uwe]

Other impressions:

- Ignoring the Delta charm for a moment, Mississippi has real issues, rural flight is taking real toll on the (mostly all-black) communities there. We saw towns along the river and old highways where basically every second home was bolted shut (and had been for a long time by the looks of it), that can hardly be a good thing. And even those communities that by the looks of it were (still) doing well, once you hit Main Street a third of the shops had been regularly given up, blame it on the mall-o-itis everywhere, but that doesn't beckon well for the future of these small towns either.

- Baton Rouge is incredibly boring, a charmless administrative hub, nothing more. Montgomery, otoh, was real nice. New Orleans gets on your nerves after a while if you live in the French Quarter. And when we were in Pigeon Forge, I momentarily believed that we had lost our way and ended up in Las Vegas!  Lots of vintage cars there though.

- People - black or white - were incredibly friendly in the South, we were asked so many times where we came from when people overheard Leon and me talking German with another. The owner of an all-black smokehouse and B-B-Q in an all-black community (one of the better off ones by the looks of it) in Mississippi demanded to have a picture taken with us and there was this touching moment in northern Alabama when the (white) waitress at some lake lodge sighed (after having quizzed us about Germany): "I've never been anywhere, not even to Nashville ...". And after a while my son and I learned that you can tell many black neighborhoods by the fact that the cars parked before the houses are newer and/or in better shape/well-kept than the houses there. In white neighborhoods it tends to be the other way around. To each his own status symbol I guess.

- We both fell a little in love with Alabama, which came as a surprise, I had expected it a lot dryer, flatter and more agricultural, but it seems like the whole state is one huge forest (unlike Mississippi where the paddle steamers ate up everything) with gently sloping hills (or "buffs" as they are called there) and lakes and rivers. And when it doesn't rain there (the rain followed us around a little), the sky is indeed "so blue" as Lynyrd Skynyrd have always claimed.

- Compared to the East and West Coast, lodging is cheap in the South. We generally stayed in good places, but except in New Orleans in the French Quarter (where we paid 230 Dollars a night in a posh hotel that would have easily cost twice as much in California or New England), we never broke the 150 Dollar barrier for a room with two twin beds (question: "King size bed or twins?" answer: "Twins please, we're father and son which means we're close, but not THAT close!") prices were regularly more around a 100 Dollars ore less.

- The trip confirmed: There really isn't a region in the US that is not worthwhile exploring. You guys have a nice country, take care of it.

- Oh, and my favorite TV evangelist is him now:





I just love his Texan aaaaaaaaa-ccent and the way he maaaaaaaaa-sticates every word plus the slightly unsettling similarity with Jerry Lee Lewis. And where a lot of TV evangelists are either trite (with endless quotes from preferably the Old Testament, you sometimes get the feeling with them like the New Testament was never even written) or blackmail-thuggish with sin, the devil, homosexuality and what have you, he has that David Copperfield type charm and everything is hunky-dory "juuuuuust aaaaaaas looooong aaaaaaaas you let Jeeeeeesus into your liiiiiiiiiiife". That is at least a positive message (and his joke at the start of the youtube vid ain't bad either). Whenever he came on the motel TVs, I was stuck/mesmerized. If they ever do a biopic on him, Matthew McConaughey dyed darkhaired should be perfect for the job.

- I hate to say it, but grits are an acquired taste. 

[patman]

Actually I love grits...

With lots of real butter for breakfast...sometimes I make cheese grits for lunch or supper. Sort of a mac n cheese substitute.

Greens too...mustard greens collard greens...

Glad you had a good trip.  Hope your son soaked up his cultural enrichment lesson.  Now he needs to put on those finger picks and play that 5 string.

[Lightyear]

Other impressions:



- Oh, and my favorite TV evangelist is him now:





I just love his Texan aaaaaaaaa-ccent and the way he maaaaaaaaa-sticates every word plus the slightly unsettling similarity with Jerry Lee Lewis. And where a lot of TV evangelists are either trite (with endless quotes from preferably the Old Testament, you sometimes get the feeling with them like the New Testament was never even written) or blackmail-thuggish with sin, the devil, homosexuality and what have you, he has that David Copperfield type charm and everything is hunky-dory "juuuuuust aaaaaaas looooong aaaaaaaas you let Jeeeeeesus into your liiiiiiiiiiife". That is at least a positive message (and his joke at the start of the youtube vid ain't bad either). Whenever he came on the motel TVs, I was stuck/mesmerized. If they ever do a biopic on him, Matthew McConaughey dyed darkhaired should be perfect for the job.

- I hate to say it, but grits are an acquired taste. 

Joel is a Houston boy born and bred.  His daddy was quite the preacher and built up a huge church on the near east side of town in a bad area.  When daddy died they tapped his son to replace him - he was not involved too much with the church if memory serves me right.  The money was on him falling on his kiester and failing - WRONG!  Within ten years he'd grown the church to the point that he signed a long term lease, then purchased, the newly empty Houston Summit, the NBA arena that the Houston Rockets had outgrown.  Once again the naysayers said he would fail but I do believe he fills the place up on a regular basis.  He's a little too slick in my opinion but the word around town is that he's a very decent guy and is the real deal.  His wife has a few critics though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakewood_Church_Central_Campus

[4stringer77]

Grits are great and even better if you can get organic or non gmo.

[Dave W]

Grits are great and even better if you can get organic or non gmo.

Arrowhead Mills yellow grits. No idea if being non-GMO and organic has anything to do with it, but they taste so much better than Quaker grits.

[Dave W]

Joel Osteen gives me the creeps.

His church was burgled last year, and one weekend's take was $600,000.

[patman]

I will have to try arrowhead mills...grits are so simple and inexpensive,and when you learn how to cook them, they taste so good.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

bits of South and North Carolona, the Great Smoky Mountains/Appalachians as well as Knoxville were hit along the way.

How did you find my little redneckopolis?

[uwe]

I thought Knoxville was cute and that bridge is spectacular, we had dinner by the river. All the downtown hotels were full, so we had to stay at the Airport Hilton which was fine.